Cerritos Beach: Hottest Real Estate In Baja?

It just might be

BY: CARRIE DUNCAN

Cerritos Beach is an area between highway 19 that goes to Todos Santos and the ocean. The beach is actually in Pescadero. It’s about 40 miles north of Cabo at km 65, if you look for the iconic house out on the point, which we have on our cover this issue, you can’t miss it. And there are kilometer markers. There are several roads going towards the beach, which is about a mile from the highway. Try to choose a good road, as some are pretty rutted. The best road is known as Tony’s road because it goes to the swanky multistory condo building that Tony Cordova has built on the south end of the beach.. He has brought electricity to his condobuilding and actually paved the way to it. Sol Pacifico is an anomaly on this rustic couple of square miles known as Cerritos Beach, but it’s at the far south end and can easily be avoided if that’s not your thing. In fact, the owner would like you to avoid it, as his hired thugs chase away anyone walking down the beach in front of this high rise.

Another, more quaint development, is what we’ve always called the huts. It’s a collection, originally, of 10 thatched roof one room bungalows which sold for peanuts. The developer, Roger Pollack, was going for surfers. Cerritos beach is known for its surf break that appeals to beginner and moderate surfer dudes and duddets.

But in recent years Pollack changed his mind and is selling them timeshare. And he has built a big fancy pool with a swim up bar. He has been indicted by the feds iin Oregon for bank fraud and issuing death threats to witnesses. At issue is about $20 million which those banks would like to get back. He will go to prison, and if the creditors can prove he used the money to build in Cerritos Beach, that could cloud ownership, so keep that in mind if you’re buying from him. He’s currently selling his big house on the point.

This is the direction Cerritos Beach is headed toward: Big development. If you don’t want to be in that environment, then don’t buy there because it surly is developing into a modern, swanky, resort area. On the other hand, if you want to get in on the ground floor, buy now. Actually, you missed the ground floor, but the elevator to riches in Cerritos Be\ach real estate is still on the lower floors, with fast development coming. The widening of the highway between La Paz and Cabo helped speed that up, and now the next step will be to get the area wired for electricity. Let’s just hope they wait until there’s enough money in the kitty to put the wires underground, as it would be a terrible shame to inflict overhead wires on this beautiful beach.

Not very long ago this was all ejido property, which is similar to our Indian reservation land. Roger Pollock and Tony Cordova were partners back then and bought the land after all the ejido people voted to sell it. Of course they had no vision of what those two men were planning, and how they would enhance the value. Surely they are sorry now

Cordova and Pollock had a falling out and are no longer partners, and the land has been broken up like a checker board, with virtually all the squares for sale. A lot of them were bought for speculation and are being flipped. Others are being built on right now, and we have brought you information on five of those properties here in this issue. There are not many single family homes, most of Cerritos seems destined for commercial development. A community of homes is just north, over a little rise on a dirt road. You can look down at dozens of nice homes on roughly the same size property as Cerritos. It’s called Pescadero.

We suggest you drive up there on a Sunday afternoon, as Daline Jones stands on the beach and sings her heart out. She’s usually there from about 2 to 5. She stands in front of the Cerritos Beach club, a rustic wooden shack of a bar run on generator and water truck. It’s owned now by Tony Cordova, and he charges five bucks to park, but if you buy food or drink, you get that back. It’s fun to sit on the sand under the beach umbrellas and enjoy Sunday at Cerritos. It’s kind of a tradition for Daline Jones followers. Go early and drive around, you will see plenty of properties for sale.